Feds declare new infrastructure fund ‘open for business’

But opposition accuses Conservatives of short-changing previous infrastructure plan to balance budget in time for the next election.

Infrastructure Minister Denis Lebel, pictured in this file photo. Although the government is touting the new Building Canada Plan as a $53-billion investment, $47-billion of the plan is new funding, while $6-billion of the funding is money that was left over from the government’s previous seven year, $33-billion infrastructure plan announced in 2007. According to the Parliamentary Budget Office’s 2013 Cost Estimate on Federal Infrastructure, the federal government spent only $25.5-billion—or 85 per cent—of planned infrastructure funding between 2007 and 2014. The Hill Times photograph by Jake Wright